Pre Season Win For Sutton At Dartford

Sutton United’s pre-season campaign continued with a strong performance away to National League South side Dartford, with Pape Gueye scoring a late winner to ensure victory.

U’s started brightly and very nearly took the lead just 5 minutes in when Moses Emmanuel met trialist Anthony Jeffrey’s cross, but could only head his effort onto the post with the rebound swiftly hacked away by a home defender. The resulting counter attack saw Dartford’s first opportunity, but a long range shot was blazed comfortably over the bar. On 15 minutes Ross Lafayette had a golden opportunity to open the scoring but couldn’t get enough power on his effort, seemingly being pulled back by the home side centre back. The referee however was unmoved. Chances continued with Craig Eastmond seeing a volley from the edge of the box well saved and Aswad Thomas driving the ball across the face of goal, inches away from finding the top corner. Lafayette too went close, nutmegging a defender before driving an effort just wide from the edge of the box.

Early on in the second half Dartford keeper Deren Ibrahim did well to deny Emmanuel’s effort from close range. Jeffrey’s encouraging audition continued when he beat several defenders on a mazy run, but unfortunately the finish was wayward and flew some way wide of the goal. The Darts mainly threatened through set pieces, a string of 3 corners cleared before a final effort was headed just wide when it seemed a goal was certain. Adam Coombes had a glorious opportunity with twenty minutes remaining after a neat dinked through ball by Tommy Wright, but perhaps thinking he was offside he crashed the ball wide from close range. A goal did arrive in the 79th minute however, a sumptuous through ball from Jeffrey Monakana weighted to perfection for Pape Gueye, the striker calmly slotting his effort past the advancing Ibrahim to get the first goal of Sutton’s pre-season. The game was seen out without too many scares, an encouraging performance leading on to Havant away on Saturday

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